It’s official. The participants at the Mysuru Palace for the International Day of Yoga 2022 on June 21 will be limited to 15,000. It’s the country’s main event on International Day of Yoga with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the celebrations performing yoga in the backdrop of the iconic Mysuru palace.
Ahead of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s visit to Mysuru on Wednesday, the number of participants were finalised at a meeting chaired by him in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
It is going to be a big task for the district administration to finalise the participants with requests from various quarters for an opportunity to participate in the event.
The Chief Minister’s visit gains significance as the authorities are awaiting instructions in view of the PM’s visit.
Meanwhile, the areas around the palace are being spruced up. The roads are getting repaired and key roads are being blacktopped. The roads where the cavalcade of the Prime Minister will be moving is being repaired. The works have been undertaken by the Mysuru City Corporation.
The stakeholders of the tourism industry are excited over the grand yoga day celebrations this year after a gap of two years in view of the pandemic. Minister in-charge of Mysuru district S.T. Somashekar said recently that plans are afoot to project this year’s Yoga Day event in a big way, even across the world, hoping that it can serve as a booster to develop tourism, which was affected due to COVID-19. It can help develop the tourism and hospitality sector which is showing signs of recovery with the drop in COVID-19 cases.
A lot of yoga schools in the State have been expressing interest to participate in the event after Mr. Modi’s participation was confirmed. It’s going to be a task cut out for the authorities to handpick the participants amidst the growing list. It is not clear whether 15,000 will be inside the palace premises or spread across both inside and outside the palace premises – like the arrangement during Dasara celebrations.
Also, it is still not clear whether any committee has been constituted as announced by the Minister in-charge of Mysuru district, who had said that the committee will comprise the MP, MLAs and MLCs belonging to all parties here to oversee the preparations and for the smooth conduct of the event.
Union Minister for Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Prahlad Joshi was here recently and had a meeting with the officials on the preparations ahead of the PM’s visit.
Mysuru is home to about 150 yoga schools and there are around 15 studios that are of international standard and offer yoga courses, accommodation and food to foreigners. However, since 2020, the numbers have dwindled over COVID-19 curbs. Most foreign nationals visit Mysuru to learn yoga during winter.
It was not just foreigners who learn yoga here. Young salaried class members and entrepreneurs from the likes of Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru were being drawn to Mysuru for yoga, before pandemic. The international recognition given for the ancient practice with June 21 celebrated as the International Day of Yoga made all the difference, yoga experts had averred.
The foreigners are learning yoga and taking online classes. The online mode helped them to stay connected with the ancient practice as many studios even today are teaching the art using digital platforms.
